This study examined the effects of instructional treatment on reducing intersentence interference in connected discourse. Intersentence interference occurs when the learner is confronted with similar stimuli that are associated with different responses. Two levels of instructional treatment (post adjunct questions and rote repetition) and two levels of syntax (active voice and passive voice) were hypothesized to have differential effects on the reduction of learning interference. / The 101 third and fourth grade students were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. The students read pairs of target and variation sentences. Two groups were assigned pairs of sentences which were all in the active voice. The other two groups were given the same target sentences in the active voice and the variation sentences in the passive voice. These comprised the constructional treatments. For the instructional treatments, two groups were instructed to use a rote repetition practice strategy, and two groups were given a post adjunct question practice strategy. Thus, each of the four groups received one constructional treatment and one instructional treatment. All students were administered the same multiple-choice word recognition test which probed for the object of the target sentences. / Using a 2 x 2 factorial analysis of covariance to compare student posttest scores, it was found that there were no significant differences between the four treatment groups, and there was no interaction effect. Analysis of student errors showed that students who erred were likely to choose previously encountered items from the variation sentences rather than unencountered items. These results support previous research on frequency theory. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0357. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74764 |
| Contributors | STEVENSON, MARY JEAN MARTIN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 80 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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